I would have gone with Insanity Puppy but I couldn't figure out a proper message for it...

Square Enix (henceforth known as Squenix) as a whole has been going through a bit of a rough transition over the past year or so.  Despite the massive success of Deus Ex Human Revolution and both Hitman Absolution and Tomb Raider coming to stores next year the publisher has been having to eat a little crow as their catalog of Western titles have been better received than their Japanese ones.  Squenix admitted as much this Summer during E3 2011 when Koji Taguchi, the SEO of Squenix Holdings, posted the following on Twitter:

"Because we merged with Eidos and had games like Tomb Raider, Deus and Hitman, as a company we were able to keep face. But the decline in Japanese titles was almost humiliating. This has been a week where I worried daily about how we can fix this."

So, it is no small wonder that Yoshinori Kitase, the producer of Squenix's crown jewel franchise Final Fantasy, said in an interview with Game Reactor that he believes that they need speed up production times on titles if they want to ensure the success of the series.  Kitase then mentioned that a 1-2 year turn around between titles would be for the best, citing the success of franchises like Call of Duty, Assassin's Creed and Battlefield.  He went on to say that Final Fantasy XIII took too long to develop and that the company has "learnt a lesson."  To put this in perspective: Final Fantasy XIII was released in 2009, three years after it was initially announced at E3 2006 and five years since it entered development.

I used to be a fan of Final Fantasy.  Up until X, I really enjoyed the franchise.  However, after X received a direct sequel (at the time an unheard of and inconceivable thought) we had a bit of a falling out which was concreted by XII's (in my opinion) terrible combat system and terribly MMO-esque gameplay.  After Hironobu Sakaguchi left the company to form Mist Walker in 2004 and released Lost Odyssey three years later (easily one of my favorite RPGs of all time) I had little connection left to FF.  As such I bore little excitement for XIII and after learning that it was mainly a corridor crawler with a 25 hour tutorial I withdrew my preorder.

The idea of turning Final Fantasy into an annual or biannual franchise though is a mind-boggling concept.  Not only do I feel that Squenix is incapable of such an action on the console front, I simply don't see how they can create new FF experiences in an 18-24 month timeframe without forcing the series to focus on direct sequels.  Sure, they've done so on the mobile front with Kingdom Hearts series but until that franchise gets a proper title with a "3" at the end of it I don't see that translating to consoles.

Despite this I feel that Squenix is lagging behind in figuring out ways to make this possible.  After all, a stated goal means nothing if you don't figure out how to reach it.  To that end there are several ways of meeting it.

1) Multi-studio development.  Looking at a list of their developers it is not unreasonable to suggest having multiple studios focus on a single title.  This is a very common practice these days (heck, Human Revolution did it) and it can dramatically cut down development times to a more reasonable time span.  Many titles these days have other developers focus on one aspect of the project while the primary studio brings all those aspects together while building the game's fundamental gameplay.  Assassin's Creed did this for Brotherhood and Revelations for example.

2) Staggered development.  Another idea worth Squenix's time is the, again, common practice of having an annual franchise split between multiple studios.  Call of Duty does this with Infinity Ward trading off years with Treyarch.  Doing this allows the studio a 24 month window to work on their title, relieving them of the pressure of preparing for the following year.

3) Incorporate Western studios.  One thing that FF fans have dreamed of over the years (myself included) is a Western-developed Final Fantasy title.  It has been considered before (GRIN's Final Fantasy Fortress idea revealed in 2010 is one example) but it may be the right time for Squenix to open up and let US and European studios give it a shot.  It might be wise to look to incorporate both staggered and multi-studio development in such a way that Western studios could focus on alternating FF titles yearly or biannually with their Japanese counterparts.  This could create an interesting dynamic in an age in which Japanese publishers are only recently giving Western developers a chance, something that was all but unpracticed last generation.

Regardless of whether it is a good idea or not it certainly is one that CAN be done.  As a whole though an RPG isn't meant for a 1-2 year development cycle with the only moderately successful instance of this happening being Namco's Tales series.  Given that Namco announced today that they will be absorbing the employees of the Tales development team and shutting down the studio (Tales of Xillia may be their final title) this is probably not the wisest call.  Final Fantasy XIII-2 seems to be the first test of this idea though as it is scheduled for release this December in Japan, two years after XIII.

Also, bonus meme piece:

 Like that?  This marvelous bit of photoshop took me an hour.

Comments

  • Avatar
    Sei
    12 years, 4 months ago

    Wouldn't these shortened development times affect the overall quality of the game? That's not to say FF13 (Thought it was alright at first, then told myself later the entire game was stupid) was a good game despite its lengthy production cycle but..

  • Avatar
    republictiger
    12 years, 4 months ago

    No. I do not want a western FF title. DO NOT WANT. |:
    I'd rather have no FF whatsoever. Do not add complex dialogue systems please... just no.
    That is not what FF is about, FF is about situational encounters. All of them! Every time you go somewhere you encounter a situation which you need to solve without the need of making much decisions in the dialogue, rarely will you have to choose "yes" or "no". They are puzzles basically where you need to figure out what A is to continue to where B is. I don't care if they are linear or not. (I don't like the open-world aspect of FF it's pointless).. should they add a point to it? No. I want them to tell me story of the world they craft, I don't want to discover it myself.

    :D

  • Avatar
    republictiger
    12 years, 4 months ago

    I believe FFVII started a trend with people being uh.. "worried" about the franchise, I think they have a really broad audience. Some like the cliche, others are tired of it, some like more futuristic fantasy stories, others the medieval fantasy ones (even if they have airships and tanks... FFIV). Some like them linear, others non-linear. People were worried at FFX having voice acting and at FFVII being in 3D. It's not a new thing.

  • Avatar
    Sei
    12 years, 4 months ago

    And Jesus Chris Davis. Namco is going to shut down the Tales team?! Is Xillia truly going to be their last title..? How disappointing. And if so.. They damn well better bring that game over here. Even so, perhaps the Tales franchise will go on?

  • Avatar
    Trusis
    12 years, 4 months ago

    Bad idea. Square Enix should focus on given the audience a higher quality game. (and I don't mean graphics)
    Annual game releases makes me think that they are going for quantity and hoping those who are hanging on to the FF series won't abandon them.

  • Avatar
    PancakeChef
    12 years, 4 months ago

    Well, there goes the neighborhood.

  • Avatar
    Gareth
    12 years, 4 months ago

    Whelp, that's the last nail. I thought that it was the music that showed how good the games were, but now they want to be CoD? I'm out.

  • Avatar
    ex_machina
    12 years, 4 months ago

    I don't wanna say we'll never see a truly awesome Final Fantasy again...

    but...uh...yeah.

  • Avatar
    specdotsign
    12 years, 4 months ago

    As long as the stories are as good as Final Fantasy XII every other year, I'll be happy. I don't mind as long they get some good writers. Graphics have never been a problem for the Final Fantasy franchise, and people generally have a favorite - be it I all the way to XIII - so I don't see why it's a terrible idea. I am, however, being overly optimistic and S-E has not given us fans any inclination of good RPG direction from their producers. We will all see soon enough.
    Oh, and S-E, just stop taking interviews and finish Final Fantasy Versus XIII. Put everyone on deck, women, children, grandparents, in-laws... dogs, cats... Just finish the freakin' game!

  • Avatar
    tenkail
    12 years, 4 months ago

    If they're afraid of losing face because their Western titles are more successful then Japanese titles, they won't open up to us foreigners. It's frustrating, all of these people need to see that video games is art, not work. There's no need to put so much effort into one title or series.

  • Avatar
    Sammonoske
    12 years, 4 months ago

    Annual FF releases.. No FFVII remake even in the distant future. If they manage to do push out a Remade FFVII, then that will be there last great FF game.

    The rest of their games will end up following the typical rushed Japanese games to meet some sort of imaginary demand. Much like Tecmo-Koei's Dynasty Warriors series.

  • Avatar
    OlMuttonchops
    12 years, 4 months ago

    Square needs to rethink their "strategy" for saving Final Fantasy. Reducing the development cycle will only bring about shoddy games and with shoddy games will come general disinterest with the series. Squeenix needs to, instead, hire some new writers, seeing as how their 2 best writers, Matsuno and Sakaguchi, left the company. If they can get some good in-studio games coming out again instead of just increasing the number of games they release then Final Fantasy wouldn't be "humiliating".

    Quality over quantity and all that.

  • Avatar
    WingZero
    12 years, 4 months ago

    They are going to lose my support if they make FF an annual occurence.

    Is Kitase joking? Does he not understand why CoD is so financially successful? Does he intend FF to have some multiplayer component to it? If he does, then we should all know how good they are in that department.

    I see FAIL written all over...

  • Avatar
    lemith
    12 years, 4 months ago

    Great. (sarcasm)

  • Avatar
    mydawghatesme
    12 years, 4 months ago

    "One thing that FF fans have dreamed of over the years (myself included) is a Western-developed Final Fantasy title."

    LOLWHAT?

    I have never in my life heard a FF fan say they want a Western studio to create a Final Fantasy. That is one of the worst ideas I could imagine for this series. I mean, your 3 ways they could help the franchise survive an annual FF release are awful. All 3 of them involve handing off the franchise with another studio or merging with another studio. FF should always be made by Square. Period.

    The fact is, Square needs to stop trying to recreate what they see in the West and look back at why people loved Japanese gaming to begin with. Long beautifully crafted stories, in depth and challenging combat systems, huge open world's to explore with secrets around every corner and lastly the high quality of every entry. It's not about how fast they release games in the least.
    Also, I know it's your opinion, but FFXII was a great game that really took the franchise in an interesting new direction and helped restore my faith in Square-Enix.

  • Avatar
    Keglunek
    12 years, 4 months ago

    This isn't exactly new... They've done this from FF7-FF10. They simply had different branches working on each title. Taking turns in development, so to speak. Some cases not exactly annually for some others in the franchise, but more like 14-15 months or so between. Hardly a difference even so. As long as they retain that strategy and still manage to make quality titles, I'm cool with this.

  • Avatar
    RigVertigo
    12 years, 4 months ago

    If you look at the actual timeline for when the games were released,it looks like there's always been a short dev cycle.

    1987-FF1
    1988-FF2
    -one year break-
    1990-FF3
    1991-FF4
    1992-FF5
    -one year break-
    1994-FF6
    -two year break-
    1997-FF7
    -one year break-
    1999-FF8
    2000-FF9 (one year dev time,still considered one,if not THE best in the series)
    2001-FF10
    2002-FF11
    -three year break-
    2006-FF12 (longest break in the series history,yet regarded by the editor and I'm sure even more folks as a bad FF game)
    -two year break-
    2009-FF13 (another long break........and we saw how that turned out)
    2010-FF14

    This doesn't even include the spin-offs. Way I see it,folks see "shorter development cycle" and attention grabbing/universally reviled names like Call Of Duty and throw a fit. Appears it's just business as usual from Squenix.

  • Avatar
    AdjacentKitten
    12 years, 4 months ago

    I wouldn't mind seeing what a Western developer could do with Final Fantasy, assuming it was closely watched so it wouldn't stray from what the series exists to do... if only I knew what that was. If not for the fact that it may give the franchise some insight on how to formulate a simple, yet enjoyable story, then just so the world can finally have that Western/Eastern comparison we've always dreamed of.

  • Avatar
    bigbazz
    12 years, 4 months ago

    Oh Great they are gonna run it into the ground like so many other games,like Call of duty,and so on and so forth....someone get that man his gun.

  • Avatar
    roughplague
    12 years, 4 months ago

    I woukd say shortening the development cycle would be nice as long as it's not every one or two years. Three would work, and it would force them to make a tighter experience rather than walking corridors for 80 or so hours.

  • Avatar
    Charles
    12 years, 4 months ago

    This sounds..... Stinky

  • Avatar
    TheAbsurdNerd
    12 years, 4 months ago

    Final Fantasy could do alright if they started focusing more on characters and story. A good story with interesting situations and great characters reacting accordingly to those are what will save this franchise imo. Sure, gameplay is important but they should focus more on keeping that familiar, at least until they get back on their feet. Also, how 'bout an episodic FF game? Not sequels necessarily but actual episodic games. That way they can churn out one each year, each can stand alone as a game but still have the feeling of a complete story with good character development over a 3-4 year cycle. Or even one story but each game follows a different party throughout the same time frame and it culminates at a fourth game.

  • Avatar
    Mr.Noodle
    12 years, 4 months ago

    Final Fantasy series to some degree can get away with 1-2 year releases. Each game are usually different so I don't think bringing up COD or Assassin Creed really applies here.

    If Square really wants money, they should just remake FF7. Unless people moved on, I think there's still a lot of demand for it.

  • Avatar
    chad
    12 years, 4 months ago

    the tales studio closed, and now this? i'm really sad.

  • Avatar
    Semikami
    12 years, 4 months ago

    I didn't ask for this.
    I though they've already been releasing a FF game every year if you count all the spin-offs.

  • Avatar
    Aged Milk
    12 years, 4 months ago

    Lmfao, anyone remember Prichard's office in Deus Ex & how it had a poster for FF:XXVII?

    If they used a literal annual dev cycle for the non-spinoff series, then that'd make that poster fairly accurate(within a 1-3 year margin) considering that the game took place in 2027. Could that had been an inside joke floating around the company & it's subsidiaries if they idea was in circulation long enough?

  • Avatar
    Iki Iki Tchikiriupow
    12 years, 4 months ago

    Adopting a model inspired by franchises like Call of Duty and Assassin's Creed would put FF's integrity to the grinder as both have very different target audiences.

    The problem lies more in their fan base: one half is in for the nostalgia while the other have the great attention span of today's generation. The products have been going downhill since IX and it doesn't help that Squenix fails at teasing. The appropriate amount creates "appetite", but the more you pass this critical point and the more people start to lose interests.

    Personally, I don't mind "corridor" games. I don't mind being on a train if the scenery is interesting.

  • Avatar
    CrossOutlaw
    12 years, 4 months ago

    Well thats the lasy nail in the coffin for square....im looking forward to hitman and tomb raider tho....lol. A yearly release of a rpg game is almost never good....i know its a bad reference but look at dragon age and dragon age 2....mainstreaming aside, u can pick out the problems they had with only a year to develop the game (ie reused areas/locations)

  • Avatar
    Schimdidy
    12 years, 4 months ago

    So, you're tellin' me that if I don't get to play Versus XIII by the end of 2013, I'll die.

    Jason Statham IS the pissed of fanboy.

    Bane of my f*cking existence.

  • Avatar
    Minyme
    12 years, 4 months ago

    But wait.... Don't these games take over a year to beat as it is?

  • Avatar
    Comradebearjew
    12 years, 3 months ago

    This is ridiculous. I won't be buying a FF game anytime soon.

  • Avatar
    Final Fantasy XV To Be Announced At E3 2012 For Wi
    12 years, 3 months ago

    [...] XV will be announced at this year E3 event for Wii U, PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360. Square Enix recently announced that it wants to make the Final Fantasy series an annual series, so it’s definitely a [...]

  • Avatar
    Nintendo Rumor Roundup – 15 Rumors and Devel
    12 years, 2 months ago

    [...] XV will be announced at this year E3 event for Wii U, PC, PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360. Square Enix recently announced that it wants to make the Final Fantasy series an annual series, so [...]